How in the world is he a best-selling author? His characters are shallow, his writing is mediocre, and when he writes about romance it feels mechanical and formulaic. This book had a twist at the end, but it was the worst sort of twist - the kind that you can't really predict because he probably didn't think to add it until after the book was already written - leaving out any traces of foreshadowing. I haven't read any of his other books and don't plan to now. When you have as little time for le...

My impulse as I read 1st to Die was to start editing. Overwriting, reduncancy, and sentimentality took the place of plot structure, character development, and freshness. Each of the four women was described in terms of her profession and ethnic background--sassy Black woman medical examiner with a faithful musician husband, sleek, sophisticated put-upon woman DA who gets no respect from her male superiors, perky newspaper reporter whose risk-taking allows her to get the scoops that more seasoned...

I tend to read Patterson's books when I don't want my brain to work that hard. 1st to Die fits that bill perfectly. I loved the concept of a group of extraordinary females - including a detective, a lawyer, and a journalist - working together to solve crimes. It was an easy to read, page-turning thriller featuring a complicated, gruesome killer of newly-weds, and more twists and turns than a twisty turny thing.

I was curious about this series because it's obviously very popular, but I can't say I'm terribly impressed by it. First of all, the sappy "you go girl" female characters didn't seem very true to life to me. Patterson seems to think that name-checking Sarah McLachlan and Tori Amos, plus a lot of hugging and randomly saying "I love you, girl", means he has created believable female characters. Not so much. Also, I thought the plot was melodramatic, and the continual twists were more tedious than

While I greatly enjoyed this and the next 2 books in the Women's Murder Club series, I was unable to continue reading the series with the same enjoyment due to comments that Patterson himself made in regards to it. He basically said that they were crap, that he just wrote them because he knew that they would sell, and he basically made me feel as if by reading them, and enjoying them, he was belittling me. I know it might be a bit extreme, but he ruined this series for me, as well as other serie...

This is a Thriller/Mystery, and it is the first book in the Women's Murder Club series. I really liked this book. I love the twisted. There was two stories in this one was the murder/solving the murders and the other was the health problem the office was learning to live with. (*)

i'm binge-reading through this series MULTIPLE TIMES for a work thing right now, so i'm not gonna review them properly, but i gotta say—i did not expect there would be post-mortem oral sex.

I’ve been having trouble concentrating enough to read anything involving thought and effort so mindless mysteries/thrillers are just what the doctor ordered. This one, though? No thanks.By page 45 I decided I hated James Patterson writing women. The head of the homicide division and the chief medical examiner of San Francisco are disgusted, sickened, and “have to turn away” from a body. What atrocity can these two strong, experienced, professional women not handle? A body with a single stab woun...

The first James Patterson book I ever read, and one of the best I read this year. It has exceeded my expectations. Honestly I didn't know serial killer novels could be this fun. It's filled with suspense and thrill, and Just when you thought you've seen the last of the twists, another one jumps at you in the final pages. The plot revolves around a serial killer who targets newlyweds at their wedding night, and it's up to the homicide inspector, Lindsay Boxer to track him down. However, in order

I love love love James Patterson, he's my new favorite author. His writing style is great, easy to read and fast. He explains things so you understand but without making you feel stupid. His characters are well developed in this series and are entertaining. Another thing I love, his chapters are very very short so you can always get to a good stopping place!

I believe this will be the last James Patterson novel that I read. It was another of his titles with cardboard characters, stilted dialogue, and a plot with unlikely but convenient and contrived coincidences, which all equal a very thin read. In this book, the women's "friendship" came across as canned and forced. I think the characters were developed solely on a quota system for just the perfect mix that could solve murders. It was almost as if I could hear him thinking, "Hmmm...let's see...I n...

This is an audio book that I listened to many, many years ago. It's narrated by Suzanne Toren who did an excellent job. I remember that I loved it so much that I listened to the entire series back to back, or at least up until the point where I had to wait for the next one to come out. Then I listened to it immediately. This was published in 2002 and I own all of them on Audible audio books. Now, the 16th one, 16th Seduction, is out so I've decided to start back to the beginning of the series fo...

There's nothing specifically GOOD about this book, but damned if the pages don't practically turn themselves. It's pure junk food, and I mean that as a compliment insofar as processed food is very highly engineered by very skilled workers to be universally appealing to the widest possible market.Patterson -- a top advertising exec before his writing career -- seems to have decided that in addition to his bestselling Alex Cross novels and film adaptations, he needed a series that appealed to wome...

Oh god - I really hated the first book I read of Patterson's, but I'd read about the Women's Murder Club TV series, and thought it sounded kind of cool, so I wanted to try the books. I'm about half way through, and this is pretty awful so far, in the same way as the previous book I read. Clumsy, cliched writing, ridiculous characters, a really ridiculous killer... bah. Why are these popular? At least it's a quick read.***Skimmed my way frantically through the second half of the book in order to

OMG, OMG, OMGThe ending of this book just fried my brain, I couldn't have seen that coming from five miles away.I held off on reading this series for so long because the concept of a women's murder club just sounded ridiculous, but it ended up being SO, SO good. Boxer and the women are smart, sassy, and everything else I could ever want from a group of characters. One of my favorite quotes from the book is from Claire, the coroner: "I'm in shape. Round is a shape." All of the women have their ow...

Kind of, sort of contains vague spoilers.I know a lot of people criticize James Patterson for having a simplistic writing style and creating characters that lack “substance,” but sometimes it’s nice to grab one of these easy-to-read thrillers. It didn’t occur to me until I began reading 1st to Die that the TV series, Women’s Murder Club, was based off of these novels. I used to watch that show and I actually enjoyed it. Too bad it only last a couple of seasons, go figure. I thought the plot to J...